Chapter 246 - 153: Harvesting the Farmland’s Produce! A Terrifying Amount of Inventory! The Situation in the TCM Room

Chapter 246: Chapter 153: Harvesting the Farmland’s Produce! A Terrifying Amount of Inventory! The Situation in the TCM Room

One, it would increase their yield, benefiting the team and allowing them to sell the surplus to others.

Two, he wanted to see if the chili pepper genes, improved by the Golden Fertilizer, would cause the second-generation crops to grow to such an exaggerated size...

"Let’s move it all to the cellar. There’s no way we can finish all this stuff in a short amount of time."

Chen Chong looked helplessly at the winter melon weighing over thirty pounds and the radish that was half a person’s height.

Even with everyone’s hearty appetites, it would take them ages to get through all this food.

Sometimes, having too much food was a happy problem to have.

Fortunately, while most produce couldn’t be smoked or dried for long-term storage like meat, it would last for ten to fifteen days without spoiling as long as the ambient temperature was suitable.

Some could even be eaten after two or three months if stored long enough in a low-temperature environment.

He planned to sort through the harvested produce. The durable ones would be saved for later, while the perishable ones would be eaten soon...

Chen Chong even began to wonder, ’Maybe I can make some pickles and preserved vegetables?’

That way, they could be stored for even longer.

The only problem was that he didn’t know how. However, he could take some time later to look for students at the school who knew how to make them.

’With so many students,’ he thought, ’someone is bound to know how.’

Once he had a method, he could use the coarse salt they had back at the apartment to try and pickle a few jars.

Pickles were a godsend for making a meal of plain rice...

Just as they finished moving everything into the cellar, before their seats on the sofa had even warmed up, Zhang Meng and Huang Mao showed up.

Xu Jun opened the door, a look of resignation on his face.

"You two... you’re faster than anyone when it’s time to eat, but you sure know how to pick your moments when it comes to work. You show up the second we’re done."

"I’m seriously starting to suspect you were just listening at the door, waiting for us to finish before you knocked."

"Huh?" Zhang Meng and Huang Mao were completely bewildered, having no idea what Xu Jun meant.

Xu Jun couldn’t be bothered to explain. He just waved a hand. "Forget it. Come on in."

The two of them, still confused, walked inside and greeted Chen Chong, "Brother Chong."

Hearing Zhang Meng’s change of address, Chen Chong was slightly taken aback.

Xu Jun was also a bit surprised.

Neither of them said anything more about it, just exchanging a knowing smile.

"Haven’t eaten yet, right?"

"Nope."

"Alright, you can eat with us in a bit."

"We’d be delighted! Haha..."

Jia Wen was busy in the kitchen. The smell of burning firewood mingled with the aroma of cooking food, wafting into the living room.

As they sat on the sofa, Chen Chong brought up the matter of moving.

"I told you before, when you have time, pack your things and move into the teachers’ apartments. We’re a big team now, and you’re core members. It’ll be more convenient to live here."

Zhang Meng nodded. "The two of us don’t have much stuff, just a couple of the lowest-level farm plots. It doesn’t matter if we move them or not. As soon as you have things set up, Brother Chong, we can come over anytime."

"Alright," Chen Chong agreed.

He had originally planned to check out the cave from before to see if he could figure out how to deal with the Bloodthirsty Vine King and the Stone Claw Eagle.

But thinking about it now, trying to handle a monstrous thing like the Bloodthirsty Vine King without fully understanding it was just boasting. ℯℯ𝑙.

Still, there was no problem with going to scout out the situation...

If he got back early, he could go and make contact with those security guards.

Besides Zhang Meng and Huang Mao, Zhong Fang could also move over.

The team would definitely continue to add new members and promote existing ones in the future.

Sooner or later, some of them would become his trusted confidants, core members like Zhang Meng and Zhong Fang.

For the sake of easier coordination, all core members had to live in the teachers’ apartments.

It would both ensure their safety and make it easier to discuss team matters and issue orders.

After all, they couldn’t just gather at the gymnasium every time, nor could he go hunting for where each of them lived whenever he had an announcement to make.

He needed to hurry up and get control of most of the rooms in the apartment building.

This place was, after all, the most suitable place to live on the entire campus, and it was his base of operations.

Besides the empty rooms, Chen Chong wanted to get his hands on all the other rooms that had been claimed by other students...

Before long, Jia Wen brought the food to the table.

Today’s meal was simple: just some of their usual jerky, plus a large basin of boiled radishes and stir-fried cowpeas.

Zhang Meng and Huang Mao stared in astonishment at the two vegetable dishes that had suddenly appeared on the table.

Firstly, it was their first time eating these two vegetables since they’d been transported here. Secondly, the size of the vegetables was... simply staggering!

The radishes had been cut into chunks, so their original size wasn’t immediately obvious.

But the cowpeas were only broken into smaller sections, and you could still faintly make out their original form.

Each piece was thicker than a thumb!

The cowpeas he remembered were about the thickness of a little finger at most, but these were more than twice the size of normal ones.

Seeing the dumbfounded looks on their faces, Chen Chong, Xu Jun, and Jia Wen all laughed.

They didn’t explain, just urged them to hurry up and eat.

"Hey, this tastes pretty good!" Xu Jun exclaimed after popping a section of cowpea into his mouth.

Chen Chong tried a piece of radish as well.

It was sweet, tender, and practically melted in his mouth. The texture was excellent!

’It seems this Golden Fertilizer not only pushes crops past their growth limits but also doesn’t ruin the taste. It really is good stuff, worthy of a B-Level Card!’

Last night he’d been a little dismissive of the Golden Fertilizer, but now he found himself hoping he could get more.

It was just too useful to have.

Chen Chong made up his mind. He couldn’t use the Golden Fertilizer carelessly. It should only be used to improve different types of crops and cultivate superior second-generation ones.

He had started with over a hundred pellets of fertilizer, and now there were just over seventy left.

The number of different types of crops, fruits, and vegetables was definitely far greater than that.

Even if he couldn’t gather many varieties at the school right now, in the future, as they traversed different ecological environments, they would eventually encounter other humans.

He remembered the intel mentioning they would later run into other human settlements similar to their school. These people might pose a threat, but they also represented an opportunity.

Different settlements would surely have different resources.

The school’s resources were too limited. After all, the environment itself meant that students attending school wouldn’t be carrying many things with them.

It was nothing more than some snacks, drinks, or hot pot ingredients and seasonings that had been secretly kept in dorm rooms.

Even the peanuts and radishes had only been around because someone from the Fighting Club had bought them to eat with drinks and hadn’t gotten the chance before the transmigration, and because another student had happened to bring some to school.

Trying to find more crops and plants in the school was a near-impossible task.

But if they encountered other settlements, the crops and even livestock they possessed would most likely be far more abundant than what the school had.

Even if he could only trade for a few varieties from them, he could slowly cultivate them until they grew in scale!

So, he had to use the Golden Fertilizer sparingly. Only when he had a larger harvest and a sufficient stockpile could he consider using it to accelerate crop growth and build up a seed reserve.

The group ate like a whirlwind, quickly clearing the table of all the food.

Even though the radishes, cowpeas, and jerky were all served in basins, the appetites of Transcendents were astonishing. After finishing everything, they were only just full.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Chen Chong planned to head to the gymnasium. After all, he still didn’t know much about the team’s ongoing recruitment efforts.

As the leader, he should make a trip over, whether it was to understand the situation or to just get familiar with the newly joined members...

After going downstairs, Chen Chong first made a trip to the infirmary.

The infirmary was still packed, with a long line of people.

Some of them were there to treat scrapes and sprains they’d gotten while out scavenging for resources.

Others had eaten something unknown and were suffering from mild diarrhea or food poisoning.

The rest, lying on simple cots on the floor, were the students who had been rescued from the Sky Pit...

After a few days of treatment, the students’ conditions had clearly improved, but there were fewer of them now.

But everyone understood without a word and didn’t ask...

After all, it was painfully obvious that most of the rescued students had been critically injured. It was impossible for them to recover completely and leave the infirmary in just a day or two.

The ones who were missing... they probably hadn’t made it.

What surprised Chen Chong was that Ning Yu was also here, keeping watch.

After they had dealt with the Bloodthirsty Vine yesterday, she hadn’t stayed behind to handle the follow-up recruitment, nor had she gone to the library with him. She had just said she had something to do, said a quick goodbye, and hurried off.

So this was where she had gone—to watch over two of the team’s injured members...

...